even with the recent changes, I can still sustain 68.5% dodge, spiking up to 93.5% for 3 seconds every 15, this is as well as having a no CD heal(which they've now made ALOT easier to use, it heals for a buttload less, but it's 25spirit, instead of 75, so you can get WAY more of them off, but 3 times as many, funnily enough ), and a 3second bubble on a 1min CD(with a nice lil heal on cast as well). Then for spells all my resistances are boosted to the level of my highest, so I can stack one(if that's possible) and it'll magically spread and buff all my other resistances as well

I like it. definitely has loads of survivability but doesn't seem to have any offensive spirit spenders. curious if the burst of damage every time you dodge will compensate. Monk is going to be my main too though =)

interesting build i was just tinkering with. it has a ton of self healing + offensive pressure. i get the feeling dodge/cc will be more valuable in inferno to just relieve damage coming in but the 50% damage reduction rune on crippling wave and 50% damage reduction when using tempest rush as well as the stun on lashing tail kick is my backup plan there. there's also a bit of synergy with transcendence and seven sided strike having no cd but 135 spirit cost. Mantra switching also sounds fun as hell to me especially with the double effect they added for first 3 seconds of activation. spirit starvation may end up being a problem.

Edit: scratching this build entirely since the monk spirit cap was reduced to 150. having no cd on seven sided strike isn't nearly as appealing when it costs 135 spirit to use and leaving you with only 15 spirit. will spend probably a good 15-20 seconds building up the spirit to use it again anyways. we'll see though.

Yeah, Originally I had Seven Sided Strike in my build, but I replaced it with Dashing Strike for the 20% dodge :P I figure the stupidly low damage doesn't REALLY matter, as it'll be spammed like a beast combined with the AoE damage from Mantra of Evasion, Sweeping Wind and Fists of Thunder and I'm hoping I'll be able to kill at a decent speed, while still being impossible to kill

I do REALLY like the idea of Aura twisting though, was doing to take Evasion and Healing, but I figured with so much to monitor in this build, adding an extra buff I have to maintain, especially one with a 3sec duration could be a bit much.

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I've been playing around with Witch Doctor builds all afternoon, made all kinds of crazy builds, going all out on minions, no minions at all but straight nuker etc. etc. I'm starting to really love the idea of playing this game

1) I love the synergy between Rush of Essence and Haunt & Spirit Barrage. Basically free mana regen while doing plenty of damage and while runed for it, also life regen. Seeing that Haunt and Spirit Barrage use different schools of damage also means I'm not screwd for damage when facing high resistances. If I manage to stay alive well enough, I'll trade the rune from Haunt for the alabaster rune instead making it a shorter DoT for more (relative) damage.

2) Rush of Essence and the sea of mana I'll be swimming in let's me slip in another passive: Pierce the Veil for more damage while using more mana, cause more mana cost for spells I get 200% mana return on is yummy and makes my river of mana return bigger while also boosting damage by 20%. This combination of passives and actives seems almost too powerful.

3) Big Bad Voodoo skill is almost mandatory I think. Perfect "Oh shiiii..." button when solo, and almost obligatory Witch Doctor skill when grouping. Runed for also giving damage I think this might turn into a skill every self respecting Witch Doctor will have when grouping up.

4) I took Firebomb for a good AOE ranged damage and Zombie dogs to keep stuff occupied and away from me, but I might when situationally needed change them to other spells to fill those same roles.

5)Wall of Zombies is a slot for pure situational filling, I can put multiple things there, Wall just seems marginally more of use in general. I can see Mass Confusion, Grasp of the dead, Horrify and Fetish Army all having niche roles to play that I can slip into that slot while keeping a general build intact

Anyone, especially Witch Doctors in the making, willing to comment? I'd love feedback and ideas and maybe other builds, there is just so much possible as a Witch Doctor

I'm wondering wether Nerves of Steel is NEEDED or Not for Barbarian on Inferno, would like an opinion on this because i'm finding myself sacrificing a Lot of damage for survivability when creating my builds... I don't have access to beta so its hard for me to know.

The beta doesn't even go through act I normal, so no one really knows except the Blizzard devs.

well that sucks then :P

---------- Post added 2011-11-08 at 01:41 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Lysah

I don't think it's possible to balance melee and ranged. It's simple fact that the ranged can do damage without taking any if they play conservatively enough, and there is nothing melee can do about that.

In short, that's why I believe they gave barbarians and monks so many options for healing. However, it is also simple fact that every rune/ability you take for healing is one less you take for damage.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...kgU!Ugb!aYbZab
Here's probably something along the lines of what I will do when I'm forced to play alone. Optional abilities are Ruthless passive and Revenge active, the rest is pretty much set right now. Of course, I'd probably hit up town and change builds to a much more single target build before I engaged bosses, mix/maxing and all that. Don't take the risk of going in with a less than perfect build playing the hardest difficulty on hardcore.

why'd you get 3 fury generators? You think you need all that much healing with war cry etc , what's the reason for that?

why'd you get 3 fury generators? You think you need all that much healing with war cry etc , what's the reason for that?

My build isn't really planned around solo play, I don't plan on using frenzy that much for the damage. Most of my build is centered around charging around, debuffing to stay alive, keeping up the frenzy heal over time as I can, and whirlwinding around as more of a defensive measure. War cry is just for the awesome buff, pretty much every barbarian should always have it. Charge is for the heal and movement, and frenzy is because the other two have cooldowns and I have to press something. I hope to achieve relative immortality while being surrounded by a horde of enemies with a build like this, so that my friends can unleash hell without dying. I play on hardcore, and will be carrying new players, my job to keep them alive as well as myself.

even with the recent changes, I can still sustain 68.5% dodge, spiking up to 93.5% for 3 seconds every 15, this is as well as having a no CD heal(which they've now made ALOT easier to use, it heals for a buttload less, but it's 25spirit, instead of 75, so you can get WAY more of them off, but 3 times as many, funnily enough ), and a 3second bubble on a 1min CD(with a nice lil heal on cast as well). Then for spells all my resistances are boosted to the level of my highest, so I can stack one(if that's possible) and it'll magically spread and buff all my other resistances as well

No you can't, dodge bonuses aren't additive. Besides it's very likely that there's a cap like in diablo II.

My build isn't really planned around solo play, I don't plan on using frenzy that much for the damage. Most of my build is centered around charging around, debuffing to stay alive, keeping up the frenzy heal over time as I can, and whirlwinding around as more of a defensive measure. War cry is just for the awesome buff, pretty much every barbarian should always have it. Charge is for the heal and movement, and frenzy is because the other two have cooldowns and I have to press something. I hope to achieve relative immortality while being surrounded by a horde of enemies with a build like this, so that my friends can unleash hell without dying. I play on hardcore, and will be carrying new players, my job to keep them alive as well as myself.

Well you see, that's the thing, with inspiring presence as passive, you may not get the 16% life bonus from war cry but you still have a 2% life regen per secon, plus your shouts are doubled.... with that you can get a 30% damage 4% crit bonus for 60 seconds with battle rage, and that's where my doubts come, if i should go with that or not, because i don't have ANY friends that like diablo... all of my weird friends just like BF3/MW3 and WoW so i'll have to play Diablo by myself everytime... and then comes the necessity to have more damage but still being able to ''not die''...

This is what i've come up with so far, don't know how good it is, but it's not my final version, although i like it...

things to consider : Not having War cry is weird, i'm not sure how good armor is on Diablo but 100% bonus armor would most obviously be ridiculously good...

Overpower is nice, an 8% maximum life per target hit on a 15 sec CD seems pretty decent, but i'm not really sure if it's Needed... i almost feel somewhat like gimping myself for not having something like Seismic Slam/Rend or Earthquake for more damage and Fury dumps... since with this build the only Fury i'll be using will be on WW and battle rage.

Anyway, i'm not ''happy'' with Wrath of the Berserker as well because it lasts for so little, but the bonuses are rather nice... Now, with everything rolling on, Frenzy + Battle Rage + Wrath of the Berserker you can get 137% more damage and 120% attack speed, plus critical hit/dodge and movement bonus so yeah... sounds decent.

If you only take Battle Rage and frenzy into account it's still a lot of passive damage/attack speed and critical hit boost.

Nevers of steel -> don't really like this, and i'm only taking it because we don't know how things will look in Inferno, but i really hope that by farming enough Hell gear there is no need to use this passive ability and replace it with something like Weapons Master or another damage boost.

With this build the main healing abilities would be charge and 2% hp regen p/sec with Inspiring Presence and Overpower, so i think on that department i'm good... but then again, doesn't feel like i have enough abilities to spend fury on, i'd like to have something with more raw Damage, like Earthquake or perhaps Seismic Slam....

I've been playing around with Witch Doctor builds all afternoon, made all kinds of crazy builds, going all out on minions, no minions at all but straight nuker etc. etc. I'm starting to really love the idea of playing this game

1) I love the synergy between Rush of Essence and Haunt & Spirit Barrage. Basically free mana regen while doing plenty of damage and while runed for it, also life regen. Seeing that Haunt and Spirit Barrage use different schools of damage also means I'm not screwd for damage when facing high resistances. If I manage to stay alive well enough, I'll trade the rune from Haunt for the alabaster rune instead making it a shorter DoT for more (relative) damage.

2) Rush of Essence and the sea of mana I'll be swimming in let's me slip in another passive: Pierce the Veil for more damage while using more mana, cause more mana cost for spells I get 200% mana return on is yummy and makes my river of mana return bigger while also boosting damage by 20%. This combination of passives and actives seems almost too powerful.

3) Big Bad Voodoo skill is almost mandatory I think. Perfect "Oh shiiii..." button when solo, and almost obligatory Witch Doctor skill when grouping. Runed for also giving damage I think this might turn into a skill every self respecting Witch Doctor will have when grouping up.

4) I took Firebomb for a good AOE ranged damage and Zombie dogs to keep stuff occupied and away from me, but I might when situationally needed change them to other spells to fill those same roles.

5)Wall of Zombies is a slot for pure situational filling, I can put multiple things there, Wall just seems marginally more of use in general. I can see Mass Confusion, Grasp of the dead, Horrify and Fetish Army all having niche roles to play that I can slip into that slot while keeping a general build intact

Anyone, especially Witch Doctors in the making, willing to comment? I'd love feedback and ideas and maybe other builds, there is just so much possible as a Witch Doctor

I like your build alot. it almost seems OP with the life leech + burst potential. They've done so much to make Witch Doctors badass, it's shocking. I wasn't psyched about them much at all when they were announced but after seeing videos/browsing the skill calculator, my opinions of them were completely flipped. Personally I love firebats and hope it's as powerful as it is awesome to look at.

I miss some crowd control. You rely heavily on DPS with 4 crimson runestones (faster killing, faster health globes), some mobility and selfheal. Really can't say if this will work, but I'm going to have a more colourful runestone set

well... not sure what i would replace for HoA... also seismic slam seems a little better, considering runes and bla bla bla :/

---------- Post added 2011-11-08 at 05:44 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Troll Sacrifice

I miss some crowd control. You rely heavily on DPS with 4 crimson runestones (faster killing, faster health globes), some mobility and selfheal. Really can't say if this will work, but I'm going to have a more colourful runestone set

like what? Link it :P

---------- Post added 2011-11-08 at 11:49 PM ----------

playing around with wizard builds is fun as well, i'll probably make an alt wizard... it's fun i can make decisive builds on all ''alts'' but i can't decide on something for my Barbarian T_T

---------- Post added 2011-11-09 at 05:23 PM ----------

I was wondering how they are dealing with D3, and how you change builds...

Because if you can ''predict'' when you're going to fight a boss, then you could easily swap specs for something more appropriate etc. Does anyone know something about this? Also, how is spec swaping handled in D3?